IPL 08: As good as it gets
View(s):The world is a happier weekend destination – smiles everywhere, moods relaxed, and an air of subdued anticipation. This is best epitomized on a Saturday morning. As this Saturday was, leading up to the last weekend of the IPL 2015 league stage. The IPL fans were basking in the after-glow of another thrilling nail-biter on Friday night.
Four matches to go out of 56 and then the play-offs.So much to look forward to in a see-saw tournament of electrifying cricket, nowreaching its final hurrah moments.With discussions narrowing down to the top four, and teams finding themselves still within striking distance of each other, separated more by net run-rates than points, IPL 08 had become a neck-to-neck race to the very end of the league stage.Saturday would decide the fates of Kolkatta and Rajasthan, with Chennai just ahead of the race, and Sunday that of Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Bangalore’s must-win game against Hyderabad on Friday proved to be another edge-of-the-seat thriller. Bangalore pulled off victorywith one-ball to spare, while also moving four positions up the points table – an indicator of how close the points table was. 135 runs in 11 overs should win any team the match. And this is what the captain had set-up, with another Warner half century, now a standard feature of most Hyderabad innings. Another rain interruption and the target was down to 81 off 6 overs. Dale Steyn was opening the bowling to Chris Gayle – a beautiful sight on any day. A four and a six off the Gayle bat ensured he won this round. With Gayle gone after a 10-ball 35, it required a special Kohli innings, and some help from Warner, over-stepping the line while holding onto Kohli’s catch in the penultimate ball, to see them through with 2 points – the most important 2 points of the last 3 years, as Kohli would say later.
Another potential eliminator was played between Mumbai and Kolkatta on Thursday. A win for Kolkatta would have sealed their spot for play-offs, while a defeat for Mumbai would have ended their hopes of further progress. Hardik Pandya, with 61 off 31, was the take-away name from the game. Overshadowing Pollard’s 33off 38 in a match-winning partnership, he got Mumbai to a commanding 171. Kolkatta though, were in the chase right through, with Pathan’s efforts bringing it down to 12 runs required off the last over. That’s when Pollard, the bowler took over. Pathan was out first ball, and Chawla was left chasing the last three, with no contact. Mumbai had won.
While Hyderabad defeated Punjab in a close game, on the back of a Warner 81, it was not all doom and gloom for Punjab, getting one over Bangalore in a 10-over match, with an explosive start from Saha getting them to 107, which Bangalore failed to reach. However, the match of the week and the innings of the league truly did belong to Bangalore and AB De Villiers. In a systematic destruction of the Mumbai bowlers, and with a 215 run partnership with Kohli, De Villiers showed once again, his mastery over the game, with a 59 ball 133, dispatching bowlers to all parts of the ground. There was little Mumbai could do, and the end result was almost a foregone conclusion.
With the vagaries of the game being in ample display, and with so many contenders for the top spots yet, it is a treat to sit back and enjoy the tournament, when cricket is as good as it gets.